In "The Big Banks," Citigroup expects CATL to be minimally affected by the proposed energy storage ban in the U.S

Citi published a research report indicating that the U.S. Congress is brewing a bill to ban the import of Chinese energy storage system products. The firm believes that although the news seems negative, the bill targets energy storage systems rather than energy storage battery cells, and CATL (03750.HK) primarily exports the latter to the U.S. market. Overall, the firm believes that the proposed bill's impact on CATL should be negligible.

The firm pointed out that CATL's stock price has performed poorly since the beginning of the year, and it believes that the weak stock price has largely reflected recent adverse factors, including a slowdown in electric vehicle sales in China, rising lithium prices, and reductions in export VAT rebates for batteries.

Based on a forecast price-to-earnings ratio of 18 times for CATL's A shares and 22 times for its H shares in 2026, it believes this offers attractive risk-reward for long-term investors. Citi reiterated its "high conviction outperform" rating on CATL's A shares and H shares, with target prices of RMB 500 and HKD 685, respectively